The increase of the price of the steel is already a fact since a few months. A basic product as the reel of steel experimented during the last five months a 50 % growth, being crossed by 400 euro the ton in December, 2009 to 600 euros as the price planned for the sales which will be made in May and June.

There is a big concern as for the current process of the rise of the prices of the steel. The small and medium-sized enterprises of the sector of the metal, the construction, the automobile, naval, and generally those who use the steel are going to be very affected by this upward trend.

Two years ago some products reached an increase of almost a raise of one hundred percent, which had serious repercussions. In this time, the effect would be more perverse since two years ago there was royal demand and now it takes place for the cost of the products.

At the end of last March, the annual agreement of the big companies of exploitation of the iron ore, in a meeting celebrated in Australia, decided to modify the usual form of adjudication of the raw material in the world steel industries, by an other one " more flexible which plans the quarterly discussion of the prices ".

The agreement, patronized by the big companies of the market, Riotinto, BHP and the Brazilian group Vale, supposed " an immediate and spectacular " increase of the price of the iron ore and, in a lesser measure, that of the coal of coke, which had a repercussion on the final product and, especially, produced a big instability on the market.

Furthermore, steel companies asked to their main customers to accept that the prices are fixed for a period of three months, a matter for which the main consumers do not show themselves favourable, because they prefer to have a certain valuable stability allowing an annual negotiation.



Source: Diario Montañes, Comercio Digital